07 Dec TOP 25 AI ETHICS THOUGHT LEADERS, ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE KEYNOTE SPEAKERS & FUTURIST EXPERTS
Today’s Top 25 AI ethics thought leaders, futurist keynote speakers and artificial intelligence consulting experts note that the technology is rapidly transforming society and businesses around the world. As a result, a global network of Top 25 AI ethics thought leaders who include researchers, policymakers, technologists, and advocates is working to ensure its development remains safe, fair, and aligned with human values.
Below consultants and advisors are among the most influential voices guiding how the technology is governed, evaluated, and integrated into our world. We hope you’ll enjoy the first installment of the global Top 25 AI ethics thought leaders list.
Note that experts, spanning areas like academia, industry, civil rights, journalism, and philosophy, form the backbone of the global movement for responsible technology use. Varied Top 25 AI ethics thought leaders voices help ensure that as automation capabilities grow, so do the ethical standards guiding them.
And by all means, let us know if we’ve missed anyone or you have any suggestions for folks to cover. We’ll take submissions into consideration for future Top 25 AI ethics thought leaders roster installments.
Leading Voices and Builders in AI & Tech Ethics
- Scott Steinberg
A futurist celebrity keynote speaker and consultant to 3000 companies, Steinberg is known for his broad commentary on technology’s societal impact, helping business leaders and audiences understand the ethical, economic, and cultural consequences of emerging automation and intelligent systems.
- Sam Altman — CEO & co-founder of OpenAI
As leader of one of the world’s most visible AI labs, Altman influences both the technical direction and public narrative of AI development.
- Elon Musk — Founder of xAI
Musk’s ventures in AI and automation — combined with his high-profile pronouncements — make him a polarizing but central figure in debates about AI’s future and risks.
- Jensen Huang — CEO & co-founder of Nvidia
By driving hardware and infrastructure that power advanced AI, Huang plays a foundational role: without adequate compute, many of today’s AI ambitions would be impossible.
- Sundar Pichai — CEO of Alphabet / Google
Under Pichai, Google continues to be a major force in AI research and productization, shaping how billions of people interact with intelligent systems daily.
- Fei‑Fei Li — Researcher and former Google AI leader
A respected AI researcher with strong influence on AI ethics, fairness, and human-centered AI — bridging academic rigor and real-world responsibility.
- Andrew Ng — AI educator, founder of research/education initiatives
Ng has helped democratize AI knowledge globally — making ethical, responsible AI development more accessible beyond elite labs.
- Geoffrey Hinton — Pioneer of modern deep learning
As one of the godfathers of AI, Hinton’s technical breakthroughs underpin many modern systems — giving him indirect but strong influence over how AI evolves ethically and technically.
- Yann LeCun — Chief AI Scientist at Meta
Working on AI research at a social-network giant, LeCun helps steer how AI intersects with social media, privacy, and large-scale user data.
- Ilya Sutskever — Co-founder & researcher (earlier at OpenAI)
One of the early technical visionaries pushing deep learning and large-model capabilities — influencing how powerful AI systems are designed.
- Demis Hassabis — CEO & co-founder of DeepMind
Under his leadership, DeepMind has produced landmark AI achievements — giving him huge sway over the ethical direction of frontier AI research.
- Dario Amodei — CEO & co-founder of Anthropic
Focused on AI safety and alignment, Amodei’s approach emphasizes cautious, responsibility-driven AI development, making him a respected voice in ethics-oriented AI companies.
- Jeff Dean — Senior Google/AI researcher
As a long-time architect of large-scale AI systems, Dean influences both engineering practices and long-term safety/ethical considerations across the AI field.
- Satya Nadella — CEO of Microsoft
Under his leadership, Microsoft has embedded AI across enterprise and consumer products — shaping real-world deployment and raising ethical questions about power, access, and equity.
- Arvind Krishna — CEO of IBM
At the helm of a legacy technology company embracing AI and enterprise automation, Krishna helps steer how traditional industries integrate AI responsibly.
- Mark Zuckerberg — Founder & CEO of Meta
As guardian of one of the largest social-network platforms, his decisions about AI-driven content, news algorithms, and data policies massively impact ethics, privacy, and social dynamics.
- Andy Jassy — CEO of Amazon / AWS
Through cloud infrastructure, AI services, and consumer products, Jassy shapes how AI scales and influences commerce, logistics, and consumer data usage — raising important governance questions.
- Lisa Su — CEO of AMD
As head of a major semiconductor company, Su plays a critical role in providing the hardware that powers AI models — and thus influences who gets access to AI power.
- Dara Khosrowshahi — CEO of Uber
Overseeing a company leveraging AI and automation at massive scale — in routing, logistics, and mobility — Dara navigates practical ethical, regulatory, and labor-impact concerns.
- Brian Chesky — CEO of Airbnb
Under Chesky’s leadership, Airbnb explores AI-driven personalization and automation in hospitality — raising questions about fairness, transparency, and user trust.
- Neal Mohan — Executives at YouTube / Google
With AI shaping content recommendations, moderation, and monetization, Mohan’s role affects how users consume information — carrying ethical implications around bias, misinformation, and user privacy.
- Doug McMillon — CEO of Walmart
As large retailers adopt AI and automation, McMillon’s strategies determine how AI transforms supply-chain, labor, pricing, and access — with broad societal consequences.
- Eugene Kaspersky — Founder & CEO of cybersecurity firm Kaspersky Lab
Security and privacy are critical where AI and automation meet personal data; Kaspersky’s influence emphasizes the need for safe, secure, and ethically managed AI systems.
- Anima Anandkumar — AI researcher and leader
As a prominent academic and industry researcher working on fairness, robustness, and transparency in AI, Anandkumar contributes to ethically sound model development.
- Timnit Gebru — AI ethicist and researcher
Known for her work on bias, fairness, and the societal impacts of large-scale AI — as well as for raising concerns over ethics and accountability — Gebru remains a critical voice advocating for responsible AI.
Looking at the makeup of global Top 25 AI ethics thought leaders, the group contains:
- Technical pioneers and researchers (Hinton, LeCun, Anandkumar, Gebru) who push AI’s boundaries while questioning its societal implications.
- Business and industry leaders (Altman, Nadella, Zuckerberg, Jassy, etc.) who build and deploy AI systems at massive scale — making decisions that shape global adoption, access, and governance.
- Infrastructure providers (Huang, Su, Khosrowshahi, McMillon, etc.) whose hardware, logistics, and platforms enable or constrain AI’s reach.
- Futurist voices (Timnit Gebru, Anima Anandkumar, Fei-Fei Li, Scott Steinberg) who ensure discussions of fairness, responsibility, bias, inclusion, and long-term societal impact remain central.
Famous Top 25 AI ethics thought leaders represent a cross-section of the ecosystem: innovators, enablers, deployers, regulators-influencers — and critics. Experts’ diverse perspectives, roles, and decisions help determine whether AI’s future will lean toward empowerment, equity, responsibility — or toward concentration, risk, and inequity.
